The Region

The volatile abortion issue triggered angry shouts and finger shaking as more than 200 people on opposing sides conducted simultaneous demonstrations in downtown Los Angeles. The "pro-choice" demonstration was organized by women's rights advocates known as the January 22nd Coalition for Reproductive Rights. Wearing black clothes in mourning for women who died from illegal abortions, they rallied outside the West 9th Street offices of the Right-to-Life League of Southern California. On the opposite side of the street, the Rev. R. L. Hymers Jr. and members of his congregation from the Fundamentalist Baptist Tabernacle of Los Angeles conducted a counter-demonstration, singing, "We Shall Overcome."